Compatriot President: Gerald Rudolph Ford

Posted Sat, 2009-09-12 21:51

Last updated: Sun, 2012-09-09 21:10

Gerald Rudolph Ford

38th President of the US

Gerald R. Ford was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1950 and served as a Congressman for 25 years. He was leader of the House Republicans for eight years. On October 12, 1973 he was nominated for 40th Vice President by President Richard M. Nixon when Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. He was the first person appointed to the office of vice-president under the terms of the 25th Amendment. Less than a year later on August 9 1974, Ford became President upon Richard Nixon's resignation. Ford was the fifth President never to have been elected to that position, and the only one never to have won any national election.

Gerald Ford was born in Omaha, NE, on July 14, 1913. He was a football star at the University of Michigan where he received his Bachelor degree. He graduated from Yale Law School in 1938. He served as a Naval Officer for four years in World War II and was discharged as a Lieutenant Commander.

President Ford’s Revolutionary War ancestor was Ezra Chase who served as a Minuteman in the Massachusetts Militia.

In 1975 President General Graham Clark visited the Oval Office in the White House to present the President with his Membership Certificate (National # 105000), the SAR Membership Badge. In 1989, the SAR Centennial Year, the former President Gerald R. Ford was presented the SAR Gold Good Citizenship Medal.

President Ford died at Rancho Mirage on December 28, 2006. He was also the longest-lived president in US history, living until the age of 93. He is buried at the Gerald Ford Museum and Presidential Library in Grand Rapids, MI